Participatory learning is a concept in pedagogy that puts student in a position of an active knowledge maker rather than a passive consumer of information. 

Traditionally, students' relationship with knowledge is passive: they listen to lectures, read textbooks, some might even watch educational video clips/movies. The process of this kind of knowledge acquistion is rather one-sided. This method of obtaining information is usually challenged through tests only, which assesses the capacity of a student's memory rather than their ability to produce outline of info or a project. As research shows, conventional approach does not yield particularly good results. 

( taken from http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/principles-of-learning/learning-pyramid/)

In our times, when the information is one google search away at our beck and call, it seems odd to be testing a student's ability to hold something in mind long enough to pass a test. When we talk about participatory learning, we talk about cultivating a different kind of learner - the one that is actively involved into knowledge acquisition, who is an active change maker, who can gather information, make sure that it's autentic and true, and compile different sources in a unique way. That kind of learner makes for a good citizen in the "knowledge society". 

Here is a video that demonstrates the hierarchy of skills that one has to acquire to learn well. 

In e-learning ecologies, the danger of students falling into a familiar pattern of being a passive learner is very much real. Discussion boards, embedded quizzes and interactive assignments are sure tools of parcipation. They safeguard the activity of one's knowledge, help apply and integrate it. We must go further and help transform learners who are very used to a classic understanding of training to undergo the much-needed change. ("Conceptualizing Learning", p. 23-24) 

The massive switch that is made possible by participatory learning is that education becomes more about passion and investigating rather than about good grades. 

An easy and a wonderful example or participatory learning is me, right now, writing up this assignment and, in a few minutes, me reading and grading the assignments of others. Another example: think of how you have learned to cook. I did so by, first, watching a loved one, next, taking a recipe and trying it out under the loved one's supervision. And now I'm able to create my own recipes and tell if I like a recipe just by looking at it (analysis).